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Position Paper - 'Information Sharing provisions: the way forward'

Following the Supreme Court judgment in July which struck out the information sharing provisions of the Named Person Scheme, CLAN Childlaw has published a position paper on how Scottish Government should respond on the issue.

CLAN argues that the best way forward is to rely on existing legal frameworks, rather than creating new information sharing schemes such as the one rejected by the Supreme Court. This approach would ensure clarity and accessibility of the legal rules around information sharing, and would avoid the difficulties identified by the Supreme Court in introducing a new, lower threshold for sharing information about children and young people.

Understanding how information sharing should now be managed requires an understanding of how the debate has evolved so far. CLAN's position paper is a valuable resource in this regard, providing a clear and in-depth history of the information sharing provisions of the Named Person Scheme, from the beginnings of legislative reform in 2006 to CLAN's intervention in the Supreme Court case earlier this year. As CLAN has been closely involved in the information sharing debate for years, their position on this issue is worth close consideration.

Together is an alliance of Scottish children's charities that improves the awareness, understanding and implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We do this by: promoting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; helping children's organisations to integrate the Convention into their work; monitoring and reporting on the progress made at a Scottish, UK and UN level.